Mind is a Garden
On Mind is a Garden, The Habit Loop, You Say You Love Me by Bob Marley, Reading Recommendation on Financial Freedom and What I'm Doing
Welcome to the seventh edition of the ‘Read. Learn. Enjoy.’ letter.
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Mind is a Garden
A postcard on the need to cultivate the mind like a garden.
“Man's mind may be likened to a garden” says James Allen in his book As a Man Thinketh.
A garden can be intelligently cultivated or allowed to run wild.
The garden, whether lovingly cultivated or not, will bring forth something true to its nature and purpose.
A well-maintained and well-cared garden will bring beautiful plants, flowers and fruits. While a neglected garden will bring forth weeds.
Our mind's garden also needs to be cultivated, maintained, challenged, and nourished to help it grow and produce a beautiful life. When neglected it creates nuisance for yourself and others.
Last week I wrote that order bears the meaning of life. Energy and effort needs to be spent to create an orderly mind and a meaningful life.
The Habit Loop
A postcard on The Habit Loop for building habits from the book Atomic Habits by James Clear.
(Image Source: Atomic Habits by James Clear)
Building habits require four steps:
Cue – The cue triggers your brain to initiate a behavior. Cue predicts a reward.
Craving – Cravings are the motivation behind a habit. Without craving a change, we will not act. The thoughts, feelings, and emotions transform a cue into a craving.
Response – The response is the actual habit you perform, which can take the form of a thought or an action.
Reward – Rewards are the end goal of every habit.
Rewards
We chase rewards because: (1) they satisfy us and (2) they teach us.
The cue is noticing the reward.
The craving is wanting the reward.
The response is about obtaining the reward.
The cue triggers a craving, which motivates a response, which provides a reward, which satisfies the craving and, ultimately, becomes associated with the cue.
Together, the four steps form a neurological feedback loop - cue, craving, response, reward; cue, craving, response, reward - that allows you to create habits.
This cycle is known as The Habit Loop.
You Say You Love Me by Bob Marley
Bob Marley’s verse below is a favourite of mine.
You say you love rain, but you use an umbrella to walk under it.
You say you love sun, but you seek shelter when it is shining.
You say you love wind, but when it comes you close your windows.
So that’s why I’m scared when you say you love me.
We appreciate the concept of ‘rain’. But when it rains we try to avoid the downpour.
Through this verse Bob Marley highlights the inconsistency between human words and actions. We say something, but do something else.
Take words with a pinch of salt unless reflected in action.
The last line brings this out beautifully: “So that’s why I’m scared when you say you love me.”
Reading Recommendation
Financial Freedom by Grant Sabatier
The author outlines a seven-step process to achieve financial freedom.
The book demystifies the concept of your ‘number’ (the money you need to have to be financially free), provides pointers to getting more out of your job, developing a side hustle and a decision-making framework while making spending decisions and investments.
The book is extremely relevant and very detailed. My key takeaway was the Seven Levels of Freedom that’s very relevant to measure progress to financial freedom.
Must read for everyone who aims for financial freedom.
On Seven-Steps to Financial Freedom
Step 1: Figure out your number.
Step 2: Calculate where you are today.
Step 3: Radically shift how you think about money.
Step 4: Stop budgeting and focus on what has the biggest impact on your savings.
Step 5: Hack your nine-to-five.
Step 6: Start a profitable side hustle and diversify your income streams.
Step 7: Invest as much money as early and often as you can.
On Seven Levels of Freedom
Clarity, when you figure out where you are and where you want to go.
Self-sufficiency, when you earn enough money to cover your expenses on your own.
Breathing room, when you escape living paycheck to paycheck.
Stability, when you have six months of living expenses saved and bad debt, like credit card debt, repaid.
Flexibility, when you have at least two years of living expenses invested.
Financial independence, when you can live off the income generated by your investments forever so work becomes optional.
Abundant wealth, when you have more money than you’ll ever need.
On Retirement
The traditional approach to retirement has three major problems:
It doesn’t work for most people.
You end up spending the most valuable years of your life working for money.
It’s not designed to help you retire as quickly as possible.
You can read my review and summary of the book.
Book Reviews and Summaries
You can read 48 book reviews and book summaries on my blog.
New Book Summaries added last week:
Three Most Read Book Summaries in August:
Freedom from the Known by J Krishnamurti – A book about freeing yourself from the past and the known.
The Art of the Good Life by Rolf Dobelli – A book outlines 50+ mental models or a toolkit to answer the age old question ‘what it means to live a good life.’
The Zurich Axioms by Max Gunther – A book that challenges conventional wisdom about investing, money and risk.
More being added every month.
What I’m Doing
What I’m doing now and what’s coming up next.
NOW
Reading 📖
Reminiscences of a Stock Operator by Edwin Lefevre.
This book, published in 1923, is roman à clef by American author Edwin Lefèvre. It is a thinly disguised biography of trader and stock market operator Jesse Lauriston Livermore.
(roman à clef = a novel in which real people or events appear with invented names.)
Thinking 🤔
On the nature of reality
On awareness
Writing ✍️
In addition to this edition of the letter:
Edited three previously published articles on my blog.
Added three new book summaries:
NEXT
A hint of what’s coming up in the next few editions.
On why things have meaning when you focus on things in your control.
Catching up on the pending book summaries.
Book Review and Summary of Reminiscences of a Stock Operator by Edwin Lefevre.
Book Summary of How to Day Trade for a Living by Andrew Aziz.
Book Summary of Charting and Technical Analysis by Fred McAllen.
I am trying to improve my knowledge and understanding of stock trading and technical analysis after reading The Single Best Investment by Lowell Miller.
PS: No plans to be day trader!
Thank you for reading till the end!
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Until next week,
- Satyajit
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